67
Though it doesn’t have the audacity to close when it should with its characters at their very lowest, The Estate is still proper fun in seeing a deeply improper family tear each other apart.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
40
It would be one thing if the film was fully committed to its nastiness — a type of comedy we don’t see much of these days at all — but “The Estate” is too often hampered by its own self-awareness.
29
Paste Magazine by Jesse Hassenger
Without any actual classicism to accompany Craig’s outdated notions of outrageousness, the movie quickly turns fustier than its edgy posturing lets on. Craig simply watches a bunch of selfish people behave badly in predictable ways, and occasionally has them lunge at each other in anger. How perfectly droll!
25
It takes truly terrible script to make such charming and accomplished comedic actors seems so wooden and lifeless.
30
Los Angeles Times by Katie Walsh
It’s not funny, it’s not satirical, and it’s not worth your time, or Toni Collette’s
42
The execution is where it’s lacking: the wit, the timing, the headlong comic drive, and the ability to make us laugh at actions and dialogue that, in any other context, would be rude or distasteful.
60
The New York Times by Teo Bugbee
This is a comedy that takes a vicious, over-the-top look at family greed, and fortunately, the cast members are game to play their characters’ attempts at flattery in the most unflattering manner possible.
50
Writer-director Dean Craig gathers a winning ensemble for his dark comedy and, intermittently, the characters’ rank awfulness is a joy to behold. But despite boasting a fair amount of snide one-liners and a general air of gleeful misanthropy, the film ends up becoming strained and predictable, not quite liberating or shocking enough.
38
RogerEbert.com by Tomris Laffly
Even with an embarrassingly rich cast, The Estate chokes on its own airlessness.